Course Updates

The exercises have been updated with explanations of these changes so you can confidently build your apps using either Rails 4 or 5.

All the code in the code bundle has been upgraded to Rails 5.

The cheat sheets have been revised to reflect both Rails 4 and 5 syntax.

How Does This Impact Me?

If you’re currently working through the Rails course, simply carry on! Continue with the course using Rails 4 and the code bundle you’ve already downloaded.

If you've already completed the course (or once you complete the course, if you're partway through), check out the "Rails 5 Changes" in the Rails course "Extras" section.

Rails 5 Changes

As it pertains to the topics we teach in our Rails courses, the changes for Rails 5 are fairly inconsequential. Most of what's new in Rails revolves around more advanced features that are outside the scope of our courses. At a high-level, there are three primary changes:

All models now inherit from a new ApplicationRecord class which in turn inherits from ActiveRecord::Base. In cases where you want to configure application-wide model behavior, you can now do so in a single spot.

The days of typing rails for some commands and rake for others are over. Now, wherever you used to type rake, you can now type rails on the command line instead. For example, rake db:migrate is now rails db:migrate.

The file extension for stylesheets has been shorted from .css.scss to .scss.

For a complete list and explanation of all the changes, see "Rails 5 Changes" in the course "Extras" section. All the changes are fairly minor and we think you’ll find the transition to be very smooth.

Move Up to Level II

If you've been waiting for Rails 5 before advancing your skills, YOUR WAIT IS OVER! In our Rails Level II course, you'll dive deep into advanced techniques and features using Rails 5 that include:

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